Greetings from Kamrar, Iowa
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From the travels and adventures of the
“World’s #1 Trackchaser”
Poplar Grove Speedway Dirt oval Lifetime Track #2,629 THE EVENT Editor’s note: Did you know that the hobby of trackchasing has recorded track visits dating back to the 1930s? That’s nearly 100 years ago! During that time there have been hundreds of trackchasers who have a formalized list of the track visits they have made. Here’s something that might surprise you. Today’s Poplar Grove Speedway was the 2,629th-lifetime track where I have seen racing. I started the year 2020 with 2,599 tracks. Now consider all of the people noted above who came before me in trackchasing. Wouldn’t you think that all of those people at one time or another would have seen virtually EVERY track dating back to the 1930s? Nope! As this is written (I’m always a bit behind in posting my Trackchaser Reports on a live time basis) I have seen racing at 56 tracks for the first time. Now consider that out of those 56 tracks some 32 of them were not only seen by me for the first time but I was also the first person, out of hundreds of trackchasers, to ever see racing at these thirty-two tracks. I find that rather amazing. I will tell you this. I get so many tips and recommendations from my trackchasing friends when a new track “pops up”. Without them, I couldn’t do what I do as well as I’m able to do it. This is the list of tracks where I was the first to see auto racing….ever. That’s right. No other trackchaser had ever come to these places before I did. Check it out. 1/6/2020 1/25/2020 2/8/2020 2/9/2020 2/15/2020 2/16/2020 3/1/2020 3/7/2020 6/6/2020 6/11/2020 6/13/2020 6/20/2020 6/26/2020 7/10/2020 7/12/2020 7/18/2020 7/24/2020 7/25/2020 8/15/2020 8/21/2020 8/22/2020 8/29/2020 8/30/2020 9/5/2020 9/6/2020 9/7/2020 9/11/2020 9/12/2020 9/13/2020 9/19/2020 9/20/2020 9/26/2020 I AM A TRACKCHASER. Are you new to the hobby of trackchasing? If so, let me give you just a little bit of background. Before I go any further I will tell you that a lot of people get pretty enthused about what I’ve been doing with trackchasing. I will offer this warning. If you try it yourself it could become addictive. My name is Randy Lewis (above with my racing buddies in Bolivia at more than 14,000 feet elevation!). I hail from the sleepy little village by the sea, San Clemente, California. I am a “trackchaser”. I trackchase. Have you ever in your life heard of “trackchasing”? I didn’t think so. Trackchasing is a “collecting” hobby. Trackchasing is a “counting” hobby. It’s really not all that much different than when you were a kid and you collected stamps or beer cans or bottle caps. Trackchasing is all about visiting new auto racing tracks for the very first time. Believe it or not, trackchasing has “rules“ as to what kind of racetrack and race car and race driver count toward your lifetime totals and which ones would not. I’ll try to oversimplify the rules situation for you. Trackchasers are allowed to count racing cars and trucks that compete on oval, road course and Figure 8 configurations. Any class that is racing, in order to count, must be open to racers 18 years of age or older. This means that trackchasers cannot count racing down exclusively by kids. There are also various motorsports events and classes of cars that do not count. Trackchasers do not count drag racing, demolition derbies, motorcycle racing or boat racing. Just cars and trucks on ovals, road course and figure 8 tracks. Trackchasing does not allow the counting of flat go-kart racing either. Remember, I didn’t set up these rules. I only count by them. The rules were set up in the 1990s by a group of white men who primarily hung out in Pennsylvania. I don’t know that any of them had ever seen any racing on a road course or figure 8 track or maybe even a drag race, with a few exceptions, when the rules were established. There is one good thing about having a common set of rules. It allows each trackchaser to compare his or her list to the next trackchaser. Trackchasers like to do that. In addition to the racing part of trackchasing for me, I really enjoy seeing the local sights and sounds of whatever area I am visiting. I called these “Trackchasing Tourist Attractions”. If you go to my website at www.randylewis.org and click on the Trackchasing Tourist Attractions tab you’ll see where I’ve been all over the world. Here’s a link to that tab. This is the Kermel Market in downtown Dakar. It’s famous for fruits and vegetbles. Many tourist sites also warned that this could be a dangerous place for tourists. Trackchasing Tourist Attractions I also really enjoy the logistical part of the hobby. I have been retired for nearly 20 years. During that time I have not earned a single dime of work income. That means I have to manage my money pretty closely enable in order to be able to do what I do. Logistically I have to handle seven different categories of trackchasing expenses. Those expenses include airplanes, rental cars, hotels, airport parking, gasoline, food and race tickets. As an example, you can just imagine what traveling from Southern California out to the Midwest for four days of racing would cost. In any given year I will travel well over 200,000 miles. I’ll stay in hotels 150-200 nights a year, rent 50-75 rental cars every year and buy a full tank of fuel about 100 days a year just for trackchasing. After each and every event that I attend I post a YouTube video, a SmugMug photo album and a very detailed Trackchaser Report about the experience. My stories are not just about what happened at the track but about my visit to the area and what exactly it took to make the trip happen. That’s where the racing, the touring and the logistical challenges come from. I told you that trackchasing is a “counting” hobby. Trackchasing is ultra-competitive as well. Lots of people don’t recognize that when they are initially exposed to this hobby. Trackchasing has had all of the political drama, cheating, accusing people of cheating and other aspects of poor personal behavior that any other competitive activity might have. This is why I am NOT a member of any organized trackchasing group. The management of these groups has been so poor over the years these groups are not something I want to be associated with whatsoever. As this is written I have seen racing in 85 different countries at more than 2,650 racetracks. During all this time I have never tried to benefit financially from my hobby. This is despite being interviewed by hundreds of track announcers, newspaper reporters and radio and TV outlets as well as doing a TV pilot. I’m a volunteer. I do this 100% for the fun of it. Because I have seen racing in 85 countries at this point I am considered the World’s #1 Trackchaser. That’s good enough for me. Now I encourage you to drop down a few spaces and read about trackchasing adventure. As you discover what went on today just think about the idea that I’ve done this more than 2,600 times. I don’t mind admitting I am addicted to that hobby of trackchasing. Yes, today’s adventure was one more of the 2,000 trips that have taken me up, down and around the proverbial long and dusty trackchasing trail. If you would like to see where I’ve been and experience those adventures here’s the link: If you’ve got a question, comment or whatever please leave it at the bottom of this report. It’s very easy to do. Or you can visit me on Facebook. Thanks! FOREWORD Saturday, July 25, 2020. In order for me to begin a trackchasing trip, I need three things. First I need a racetrack to visit. Secondly, I need a decent weather forecast. Finally, I need a way to get from my house in Southern California to whatever track I plan to visit. I have to consider the rules of trackchasing when I decide whether or not I can visit the racetrack and “count” it in my lifetime totals. Trackchasing, like the IRS, has a lot of unusual rules. I certainly don’t agree with all of the trackchasing rules but I follow them so that my results can be fairly compared to other Trackchasers. One of the rules that the early trackchasers thought would be worthwhile was that chasers would not be able to count flat kart go-kart racing. The photo above depicts a “flat-kart”. Basically the driver just sits in the seat without any seatbelts whatsoever or roll cage protection. Several big-name NASCAR drivers began their racing career in flat carts. You probably recognize the names of Jeff Gordon (above), Clint Bowyer, Jamie McMurray and Tony Stewart. They all started out in flat carts. Another rule that the trackchasing founding fathers thought was important was that in order to count a track a racing division being watched had to be open to adults. What and who was an “adult”? No one in trackchasing really knew. I like to think I was 100% responsible in defining the answer to that question. Many years ago I badgered trackchasing Commissioner Will White to define what an adult was. Finally just to keep me from asking him how old an adult was in trackchasing terms he made his clarification and definition. From that point forward in the trackchasing world an adult would be known as someone who is 18 years of age or older. Current trackchasing commissioner Guy Smith, the founder of trackchasing, has always defended the trackchasing position against counting racing done by “kids”. Does Mr. Smith have kids? No. I guess that makes him qualified to support this edict. As some form of justification of this goofy rule he told everyone that he didn’t think trackchasers should be in the business of counting a race were three 5-year-olds raced around a series of hay bales in a Target parking lot. Truth be told we have counted racing exactly like that but with adults behind the steering wheel. If racing by three adults was advertised as being held in a Target parking lot in Rhode Island, or any state for that matter, with hay bales marking the track’s location Mr. Smith, would be the first one in the ticket line. No kids huh? NASCAR’s four-time champion Jeff Gordon was racing All-Star sprint cars at the age of thirteen. Today racers in the 8-14-year-old range can often be competitive and be winning in adult divisions. I believe trackchasing’s founding fathers made a major error in not allowing trackchasers to count flat kart racing. I’ve seen so many good flat kart races as compared to junk car dirt oval track racing. The technology and skill and money needed to fund a flat cart racing operation is hundreds of times greater than those junk car events which are counted so often by trackchasers. However, I would say that it might not be a good idea to begin counting flat kart racing at this stage, after decades of trackchasing. Did you know that tracks have been counted in the hobby since the 1930s? That’s nearly 100 years of trackchasing. Why would I say that trackchasing founding fathers made a mistake by not counting flat carts and that is also a bad idea to begin counting them now? Trackchasing is all about statistics. It is all about counting a track. Trackchasers wouldn’t walk across the street to see one of these novelty races if it didn’t “count”. If all of a sudden we started counting go-kart tracks the “comparison of the count” with today’s trackchasers and those trackchasers that built the hobby all the way back in the late 60s and 70s would be majorly disrupted. It would sort of be like bringing in the fences of a major league ballpark to 200 feet when the original ballplayers played with a soft baseball and the fences were back at 350 feet. I don’t think if I were an up-and-coming trackchaser, of which there are very few, I would like my trackchasing totals to be considered “inflated“ against the originators and old-timers of trackchasing. No, I don’t think I would like that. If I had to guess I would say there are well over 1,000 kart tracks that aren’t currently available to be counted in the trackchasing hobby. If the flat kart rule was reversed or if the age limit for drivers allowed to count was lowered below 18 years of age these 1000+ tracks would come into play. No, right now I don’t think it would be a good idea to count go kart tracks. I believe that ship has sailed. I have certainly seen my share of racing at “go-kart” tracks. I suspect I have seen racing at more kart tracks than any other trackchaser. From time to time a kart track will run some countable form of kart, almost always a caged card, on a “specials” basis. When that happens I will swoop in and be able to count the track even though on most Saturday nights that go-kart track only races flat karts. Today I was headed up to Kamrar, Iowa to visit the Poplar Grove Speedway. I’ve known about this track for well over a decade. As far as I knew they have rarely run any kind of caged class that would meet trackchasing rules. When I darkened the door of the Poplar Grove Speedway today had any other trackchaser ever been there before me in nearly 100 years of trackchasing and with hundreds of “recorded” trackchasers? Er….no. With all of this as background, I will tell you that I woke up this morning in Bethany, Missouri. It was going to be an extremely hot and humid day with temperatures in the mid-90s and humidity pretty much to match. I figured if I could get in two miles or a little bit more of power walking this morning before it got really hot then somewhere along the way today I could catch the other two miles to meet my daily four-mile walking goal. Therefore I began making circles around the local Walmart until I had about 2 1/2 miles in the books. I had been in contact with the Poplar Grove Speedway. I wanted to confirm two things. First I needed to be assured they would be running caged karts. I talked with a fellow by the name of Andy Rice who is the parts dealer at Poplar Grove. I told him what I was up to. Andy convinced me they would have about 20 caged karts racing. That was good enough for me. The Poplar Grove Speedway was running a two-day event this weekend. This was their “Nationals” the biggest race at the track of the season. Although they were running on Friday night none of the caged karts would appear on the track until Saturday. I couldn’t find their exact racing schedule through any of my traditional social media locations. I was able to text a second contact at the track and get some information that way. I asked my contact what time the first race would begin. The information that came back told me it would be very difficult to answer my question. I asked if maybe they could simply give me their best guesstimate. I was told that the first countable caged kart race might begin around 1:30 p.m. In hindsight, this wasn’t very good information. However, I cannot criticize anyone who at first doesn’t want to answer my question because they don’t think they can do it accurately and then only through my prodding gives me their best guesstimate. They are trying to help me not hurt me. If the information they give me isn’t that accurate it’s on me. On the drive, I made a stop at a Maid-Rite location just outside of Des Moines, Iowa. I love Maid-Rite sandwiches. If you recall the phrase “loose meat” on the Roseanne show, and she’s from Iowa, they talked about loose meat aka Maid-Rite sandwiches. However, I made the mistake of ordering a hamburger basket thinking it was a Maid-Rite basket. What I got was a hamburger not a Maid-Rite. The mistake was on me. I was just a little bit surprised when my Waze GPS system had the Poplar Grove Speedway location in its database. Years ago most GPS systems couldn’t do that. My GPS system took me directly to the track with no hassles whatsoever. I have been told the first race might begin at 1:30 p.m. I thought that was a little optimistic so I wasn’t too worried when I pulled in at 2:30 p.m. an hour late. When did they start racing? 4:30 p.m.! Again I’m not criticizing the information I got earlier. It was a guesstimate. There was no admission charge for spectators today. That’s fairly normal when visiting a kart track. The charge for a pit pass was 20 bucks. I could see the pits from the fence so dropping another $20 to be able to walk through the pits didn’t appeal to me. I’m here to tell you that the Poplar Grove Speedway is a nice little layout. It’s really just like any major permanent dirt facility you’ve seen except on sort of a miniature scale. The track was a slightly banked dirt oval configuration. They had a decent PA system and a good announcer who only began describing the action when the races begin and not during practice. Speaking of practice I have long felt that go-kart racers practice way too much. I told you I arrived at the track at 2:30 p.m. The racing program today called for two rounds of practice. That was two full hours of track time on a very hot and humid day just for practice. I watched the first round from the spectator area. I watched the second round from the inside of my air-conditioned National Car Rental Racing Toyota Camry. After watching practice I could see there were two countable classes of karts racing today. They were both caged karts. The intermediate adult winged class had four competitors. The other caged kart class brought five racers. The concession prices were more than reasonable. I ended up buying five bottles of water overall at just a dollar apiece. I told you it was a hot and humid day! Additionally, I couldn’t pass up their homemade cinnamon roll which was also just a buck. I will say this. My aunt Lucille’s homemade cinnamon rolls would absolutely blow away what was offered today. There were probably 25-30 people watching the races from the shaded spectator area located just off of turn one. If I had to guess I was the only fan in attendance that was not someone associated with a car and driver. That was exactly the case at the kart racing last night near Kansas City, Missouri. I’m going to guess there were about 15-20 racing classes today. I never count each class. What’s the point? If I told you there were 10-12 classes or 15-17 classes or whatever you would simply make a note and move on. I was quite pleased to see that the adult intermediate wing class was number five on the schedule. The other winged class was about number 15. Following the national anthem at 4:30 p.m. the first class of flat karts took to the track. This is when the program really started to slow down. They were all kinds of spins and other mistakes that caused several yellow flags. Each of the races before the class that I wanted to see had 3-5 or more yellow flag slowdowns. I breathed a collective sigh of relief when the green flag fell on the intermediate adult winged class. When that green flag was thrown and the karts crossed the starting line the Poplar Grove speedway was in the books. It will forever be known as lifetime track #2,629. When that caged class finished, which was the fifth class of the day and the fifth heat race of the day, they stopped the program and did some track maintenance. They used a huge spinning brush that seemed to blow off all of the marbles on the dirt track. While this was going on I walked across the gravel road where a large church cemetery was located. I marveled at the headstones. One person had died at age 25. I wondered why? It’s so difficult and impossible to understand why one person lives to be 25 years old and another person 95 years old. That’s a big difference. When I got back to the spectator area they were still doing track prep. It was now almost 6 p.m. I had been at the track for 3 1/2 hours. I had seen five or six heat races and only one heat race that counted toward my trackchasing goals. I had no good idea when they were going to resume racing. One of the track officials told me that last night’s racing didn’t end until almost 1 a.m. I certainly wasn’t going to be at the Poplar Grove Speedway today at 1 a.m. I still had to drive out toward Lena, Wisconsin in the hopes of seeing a race there tomorrow afternoon. I really wanted to see that second caged class race. However, if I waited any longer I would have to sit through at least ten more heat races when five of those types of heat races had already taken more than an hour to complete. The weather was horrendously hot and humid. With the track still being maintained, I made the executive decision to exit the premises of the Poplar Grove Speedway. I don’t regret that decision. From the Poplar Grove Speedway location in Kamrar, Iowa I had to decide how much of a drive over toward tomorrow’s racing location in Lena, Wisconsin I wanted to knock off tonight. I had already driven 171 miles before I reached Poplar Grove from Bethany, Missouri. I did a few calculations using my Waze GPS system and decided I would stay overnight tonight in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. That would be a 336-mile drive from the go-kart track. How often do you head out on vacation and not know until six or eight in the evening where you’re going to be staying for the night? For the past couple of years, the Toyota Camry has been my “go to” rental car. Of course, the National Car Rental Company has been my long-time track-chasing sponsor for decades. I like National for several reasons, one of which is the fact that almost every car I get from them has less than 10,000 miles on the odometer. I can get nearly 40 miles per gallon with the Toyota Camry, which is excellent fuel mileage. Although I drive an SUV at home I would never pick an SUV rental vehicle. I wouldn’t want to take the hit on the gas mileage. I don’t find rental car SUVs all that comfortable to drive. I’ve got to tell you that I’m quite a junk food eater as well. I guess I always have been. Although I could tend to lose a few pounds being 6‘3“ tall allows me to carry weight pretty well. My plan during a gas stop was to pick up a couple of pieces of pizza that had been advertised on a billboard from Casey’s convenience store location. However, when the pizza didn’t look very good I went with a chocolate “float“ which is what we called them when I was 10 years old. Later at about 1030 p.m. I made my final food stop of the day at McDonald’s. I frequently use McDonald’s smartphone app. Tonight they were offering a large order of fries for just a buck. That was a nice discount from their normal $2.99 price. I joined up the fries with a couple of healthy packets of salt and a large Diet Coke. I was good to go for the rest of the evening until I arrived at the Microtel Hotel in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. Of course the online travel agent SnapTravel gave me a good deal with the hotel. I am an avid listener of podcasts. I also have satellite radio via my smartphone available at all times. For the last couple of trips, I’ve been listening to the Mark Martin podcast. Since I first started watching him during his early years with ASA asphalt stock cars his stories really resonated with me. If you come from that era of stock car racing I think you would absolutely love Mark’s podcast. Good evening from Kamrar, Iowa and the Poplar Grove Speedway. Randy Lewis – 85 countries – 2,629 tracks. Iowa The Hawkeye State This afternoon I saw racing at my 119th-lifetime track in the Hawkeye State, yes, the Hawkeye State. I hold the #1 trackchasing ranking in Iowa. Iowa ranks #4, amongst all the states, in tracks seen for me in the U.S. As a matter of fact, the first track I ever visited outside of my boyhood state of Illinois was the Davenport Speedway in Davenport, Iowa. Here’s a link to my all-time Iowa state trackchasing list. I have made 82 separate trips to Iowa seeing these tracks. Thanks for reading about my trackchasing, Randy Lewis World’s #1 Trackchaser Peoria Old Timers Racing Club (P.O.R.C.) Hall of Fame Member Growing up, POP is what we always called it. Then, at some point, that word, SODA, got introduced into our Iowa vocabulary. Even though I often call it soda now, it bothers me every time. It’s POP. Although, I must admit neither word really seems fitting to this item that so many of us love, even though we know water is the way to go. JUST THE FACTS LIFETIME TRACKCHASER COMPARISONS The three most important trackchasing comparisons to me are: Total lifetime tracks seen Total “trackchasing countries” seen Lifetime National Geographic Diversity results Total Lifetime Tracks There are no trackchasers currently within 760 tracks of my lifetime total. Don’t blame me. Total Trackchasing Countries My nearest trackchasing competitor, a native of Belgium, has seen racing in more than 30 fewer countries compared to my lifetime total. Current lifetime National Geographic Diversity results That’s all folks! Official end of the RLR – Randy Lewis Racing Trackchaser Report Click on the link below to see the video production from the racing action today. Click on the link below for a photo album from today’s trackchasing day. You can view the album slide by slide or click on the “slide show” icon for a self-guided tour of today’s trackchasing adventure. A big day of trackchasing in Iowa…to see my 119th lifetime track in the Hawkeye State 
Ice Pragelato
Pragelato, Italy
Lake Superior (Barkers Island) Ice Course
Superior, WI
Stampede Premium Covered Arena at the Florida State Fairgrounds – F8
Tampa, FL
Stampede Premium Covered Arena at the Florida State Fairgrounds – oval
Tampa, FL
Clearwater Lake Ice Course
South Haven, MN
Pelch Services Ice Race
Rosetown, Saskatchewan
Autodromo de Yucatan Emerson Fittipaldi
Merida, Yucatan, Mexico
Asele Motorsallskap Ice Course
Asele, Sweden
What Cheer Raceway-oval
What Cheer, IA
Wisconsin International Raceway
Kaukauna, WI
Kiamichi Mountains Speedway
Nashoba, OK
Alien Motor Speedway
Roswell, NM
Boss Dirt Track Speedway
Lawton, OK
Coulee Go-Kart Raceway
West Salem, WI
McClure Raceway
West Liberty, OH
Cache County Fairgrounds
Logan, UT
KC Raceway
River Bend, MO
Poplar Grove Speedway
Kamrar, IA
Miller Raceway Park
Montgomery, IN
Viking Speedway – inner
Alexandria, MN
Midvale Speedway – inner
Midvale, OH
1264 Xtreme Park
Wellsville, KS
Hawkeye Downs Speedway RC
Cedar Rapids, IA
Guthrie Center Fairgrounds
Guthrie Center, IA
Madison International Speedway-roval
Oregon, WI
Lion’s Park
West Liberty, OH
Honor Speedway
Pueblo, CO
State Fair Arena
Sedalia, MO
Windy Hollow Speedway-roval
Owensboro, KY
Round Town Raceway
Circle, MT
Washington Quarter Midget Assn
Monroe, WA
Cedar Hill Raceway
Ovalo, TX
Iowa sayings: POP
